Everything's fine
by Jancys-Blue-Bayou
Summary: Missing scene set during 1x06, Nancy and Jonathan in the police station. Nancy reflects on Jonathan, Steve, herself and all that's happened.


"Everything okay?"

"Yeah. Everything's fine."

Well, obviously everything is not fine. Barely anything is. The monster that took Barb and Will is still out there, and now they're stuck here at the police station. And Steve has told the whole town that she's a slut. Just a few days ago that last problem would've felt life-ruining but now it's the least of her worries.

She holds the ice to Jonathan's temple and tries to not get lost in his eyes. She thinks about what the old secretary said. She is free to go, but no way in hell she is. She feels very strongly that she and Jonathan is a team, leaving him here to go off on her own to find the monster is completely out of question. Especially after what happened last night in the woods.

"Only love makes you that crazy sweetheart. And that damn stupid." The lady really has no idea what she's talking about, since she wasn't there. Jonathan didn't beat up Steve for her, he beat up Steve because of all the fucked up shit Steve spewed out about him and his family. And it wasn't stupid. Steve deserved every punch, maybe more. It was really fucked up. Yes in the moment she had tried to urge Jonathan to let it go and to stop, but he hadn't listened and could she really blame him? No. She can't believe someone could say all the vile shit Steve did.

And after their fight in the woods, when it felt like they were so far off from ever understanding each other, she's been trying to look at things from Jonathan's point of view, to walk a mile in his shoes. And she's starting to understand how vastly different lives you have if you grow up in Hawkins with the surname Byers rather than Harrington or Wheeler. If you're a Wheeler you can comfortably blend in to the crowd, you're just another kid growing up comfortably on the end of a cul-de-sac. If you're a Harrington you grow up in the nicest house in town and everyone wants to be your friend, or more.

If you're a Byers you grow up in a small house on the edge of town, get teased from kindergarten and on for bullshit stuff like how your clothes are old and ill-fitting and everyone knows your dad ran off and left your family in the dust. And everyone knows and feeds the rumors about you, your brother, your mother. When you've done nothing to deserve it.

She's still a bit angry about the pictures. That was fucked up. But Jonathan really isn't the pretentious creep people like Steve says he is. That was creepy, but he gave her a genuine apology and since then he seems to be incredibly mindful of not overstepping any boundaries with her. And he's saved her life. She's gotten to know the real Jonathan. The incredibly brave boy who saved her from another dimension. Who felt like safety when he held her close after pulling her from the tree, like he'd shield her from anything and everything. The selfless and sweet boy who walked her home and put his warm, comforting sweater over her shoulders and who stayed the night so she wouldn't be alone. And the funny and weirdly charming guy who'd kind of sort of flirt with her when they'd go shopping for monster hunting supplies.

And the more she thinks of it, what Steve did creeps her out way more than what Jonathan did. She has no idea what Steve thinks he saw, but it's clear he must've spied on them last night. Peeped in through her bedroom window and seeing Jonathan in her room deciding he had the right to slut shame her to the whole town. How long did he sit and spy on them? Has he done that before? It wasn't the first time he climbed up to her window without telling her beforehand.

She felt so lucky when Steve noticed her. That out of all the girls in the school, Steve Harrington, easily the coolest kid in school, noticed her and asked her out. She thought she wanted that. It hasn't turned out the way she thought it would. Making out with him was cool, though she did have to tell him "no" kind of lot when he tried to move things further than she was comfortable with. And when they did go all the way it felt… underwhelming. Maybe she'd built it up too much in her mind, reality probably was never that romantic but still it didn't feel good. His jeans were still wet when he laid on top of her, which made her shiver but not in the right way, and he moved it forward quickly while she was unsure and kind of distracted thinking about what Barb said, and then it was all over quickly and then he fell asleep right away and she had to go home alone in the dark. And the next day everybody knew, Steve promised her he didn't tell anybody but Tommy and Carol clearly knew and he didn't do anything to stop them when they acted like morons about it at lunch.

She regrets the whole party. Not just because of Barb. Most of all because of that of course. She'd do anything, anything to go back in time and have it undone so Barb would still be here. But also because she now knows Barb was right. It wasn't her. She just wanted so desperately to fit in, she wanted to be cool, to be more than Nerdy Nancy which is why she did things she normally wouldn't do that night, like fall for peer pressure and even worse, subjecting Barb to it. She was acting like someone she's not, because she felt she couldn't be herself with Steve and she so wanted Steve then.

With Jonathan she feels like she can be herself. More than that, she's discovered new things about herself that she really likes over the course of teaming up with him. She feels braver, being with him. She likes being brave. She feels like, once they get out of here, they will be able to take the monster down, together.

"How does it feel?" She asks.

"Better now, thanks," he quietly answers, briefly glancing up to meet her eye. She lowers the ice-filled towel. He looks ashamed. "Sorry about this."

"It's alright," she tells him. "He deserved it," she quickly adds in a low voice. He glances up at her again. She can't help but smile at him. He gives off a little half-chuckle which makes her smile more.

There's a pause as she thinks about what to say next. There's a lot she wants to tell him. But before she can make her mind up the door swings open and Joyce Byers storms in ranting and raving with Chief Hopper in tow. She sits up straighter and Jonathan does the same. He looks apprehensive. She wonders how this will pan out.


End file.
